An agal (; also spelled iqal, egal, or igal) is a clothing accessory traditionally worn by tribal Arab men. It is a doubled black cord used to keep a keffiyeh in place on the wearer's head.Oxford English Dictionary. Second Edition, 1989. Agals are traditionally made of goat or camel hair.Merriam-Webster definition, online edition Modern agals typically use cord manufactured for this purpose (rulers of Bahrain in particular are known for wearing elaborate agal designs), but plain rope is still occasionally utilized.
It is traditionally worn by Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula (except Yemen and Oman), Iraq, Jordan, tribes in Syria, Sinai and Sharqia in Egypt, the south of the Maghreb, parts of Palestine, the Negev in Israel, and Khuzestan in Iran.
The use of the agal and ghutra is depicted in bas-reliefs and statues across the Middle East dating as far back as ancient times.Walther Hinz, Lost World of Elam, pp. 20-21: In referring to dark-skinned Susa in a bas-relief wearing agal: "These must be Elamites from the hinterland. Even today dark-skinned men, in no way negroid, are often to be seen in Khuzistan. They consider themselves for the most part as 'Arabs', and speak 'Arabic' among themselves. It seems likely that the population even of Ancient Elam was a mixed one, consisting of dark-skinned aboriginals of uncertain race and of 'Semites', who had infiltrated from Mesopotamia in repeated incursions since the Akkad period". In his book Iran in the Ancient East, the archaeologist and Iranologist Ernst Herzfeld, in referring to the Susa bas-reliefs, points to the ancient agal as unique headwear of Elamites that distinguished them from other nations.
See also Khizam Shemagh Bisht Izar Litham Sirwal Taqiyah Thawb Keffiyeh
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